1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to Internet Web pages, and more specifically, to a system and method of providing dynamic content to a static page stored on a non-application capable server.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Internet Web pages have become very sophisticated, incorporating not only “static” content, such as text and pictures, but “dynamic” content as well, such as scripts or programs that provide rich, dynamic content from a database. By utilizing dynamic content, Web pages may be personalized, for example, by welcoming the user to the Web site, or providing information and links customized by the user. Scripts are typically a list of operations or commands that may be executed without user interaction. Some examples of scripting languages include Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript), JavaScript, and Perl.
As Internet Web sites take more dominant roles in business, the ability for a Web site to feature dynamic content is important in conveying information to a user, and/or attracting users to the Web site. Therefore, many businesses have a large Web content base, having both static content and dynamic/application content. Static content need not reside on an application-capable (script-enabled) server, while dynamic content needs to reside on an application-capable server. A non-application capable server is one that is not server-side scripting enabled, and does not have database connectivity. Accordingly, a non-application capable server does not perform any parsing of Web pages, and only serves up static pages. On the other hand, an application-capable server is adapted to interpret server-side scripting, and has database connectivity. Application-capable servers parse dynamic pages, compile server-side scripting, and insert database elements before delivering the dynamic content to a user's Internet browser.
In order to provide database-driven, personalized, and “application-like” features into a static environment, the static content is typically stored with the dynamic content on an application-capable server. However, it is preferable that static content be kept separate from the dynamic content for several reasons. When static content and dynamic content are stored separately, content authors can publish revisions to the static content (such as “journalistic-type” content, like text and still images) stored on the non-application capable servers through a document management/processing program without the fear of a wayward script being introduced into and bringing down the entire server infrastructure. Additionally, by revising only the static content stored on the non-application capable server, the approval process for making such revisions is generally easier to obtain or not necessary at all, as would be required for revising scripts or applications that are stored on application-capable servers.
Moreover, application-capable servers are much less scalable than non-application-capable servers. Therefore, performance is greater if static content is kept separate from the dynamic content. But, static content and dynamic content may be stored separately only by utilizing a third-party software package residing in the server infrastructure acting as an intermediary between the database and the content, such as BroadVision Enterprise (from BroadVision, Inc., Redwood City, Calif.). However, introducing additional software components such as an intermediary software package to the server infrastructure creates greater complexity and greater opportunity for instability in the server network.